(no subject)
I WIN.
In Sociology, we have to do a project. You know how these things go - something to do with sociology. Thaaat narrows that right down, doesn't it? Because our teacher is insane, it has to be both a ten-page paper AND a fifteen/twenty minute presentation. And it's a partner thing.
Boo. I hate partner projects. The picking a topic and coordinating and hoping everyone does their work and OH MY GOD, pleeeease, let me do it by myseeeelf, I will happily do all the work if I can just do it alone.
And for a while, it looked like it was going to go my way. My assigned partner had dropped off the face of the earth and I'd been happily brainstorming ideas by me onesie, savvy?. I had just settled on an idea about exploring the changes in the culture of the Tigers as they went from travesty that was 2003 to being the AL Champs just three years later - the components that had changed, both in the office and on the field, stuff like that. (This is not a chemistry thing, mind you; this is about changes in personnel leading to a quantifiable difference in how the team was run and how their play changed as a result.)
AND THEN DOOM. My teacher - who had insisted that I must have a partner if one was available because part of the point was "learning to work with people," like, hi, I am twenty-four years old and have been working in customer service since I was sixteen, I know how to work with people, plus? I went to public school, where they are constantly inflicting group projects on students (his rationale was that my fellow students may not have had the experience - what the hell kinds of schools did they go to?) - had found me a partner. (I would like to apologize for the previous sentence. I hope no one got lost.)
WOE AND DESPAIR. So much for all that brainstorming I did on my own, right? Because you know that no kid going to a community college in Maine is going to care about the Tigers.
So I meet my new partner, Jennifer, who must be new to the class because she wasn't even sure what the project was. I summed it up as above (ie, anything), and we got to trying to find interests in common.
Here I was guilty of sexism. I assumed that Jennifer, in her capacity as female, would not be interested in a sports project. Even though I myself display distinct female characteristics. Go figure. So I offhandedly mentioned sports, and she perked up. She loves sports. Everything. Except not so much baseball. Still! Close enough. I floated an idea I'd had earlier about a comparison of baseball, the only remaining major sport in the US without a salary cap, to a sport with a salary cap. (Just one sport - doing all of them would be way too wide a scope with too many other differences to address. I was thinking football, because it's the only other sport I know anything about and having to learn all about basketball or whatever would have been a hassle.) I got this idea from Lee Goldberg, a local sports anchor, mentioning in a presentation to my sports management class last semester that baseball players are far and away the snottiest major sports figures to deal with.
She was interested. Good. Maybe this would work. Then the subject turned to the Tigers notes I still had in my hand.
YOU GUYS SHE LIVED IN DETROIT AND SHE LOVES THE TIGERS.
So I explained my Tigers idea and she thought it was great! We were both thrilled that we'd ended up paired with just the right partner. No compromising and picking a subject that neither of us really cares about. Both of us being keenly interested is going to make a huge difference. Plus, since I'd been proceeding on the assumption that I'd be working alone, we didn't have to spend a bunch of time picking a topic since I already had one outlined. Since we'd just partnered up, we could have been quite behind everyone else, but instead we came out ahead, since we don't have to officially claim our topics until Thursday. (Our teacher is similarly pleased, since I'd made my aversion to group work so clear. He managed, by sheer dumb luck, to find a partner I am happy with. *g*)
AND THUS I WIN.
Now if I can just convince her to put the presentation together while I write the paper . . . we both have to present it, but I'm much better at writing than making visuals.
In Sociology, we have to do a project. You know how these things go - something to do with sociology. Thaaat narrows that right down, doesn't it? Because our teacher is insane, it has to be both a ten-page paper AND a fifteen/twenty minute presentation. And it's a partner thing.
Boo. I hate partner projects. The picking a topic and coordinating and hoping everyone does their work and OH MY GOD, pleeeease, let me do it by myseeeelf, I will happily do all the work if I can just do it alone.
And for a while, it looked like it was going to go my way. My assigned partner had dropped off the face of the earth and I'd been happily brainstorming ideas by me onesie
AND THEN DOOM. My teacher - who had insisted that I must have a partner if one was available because part of the point was "learning to work with people," like, hi, I am twenty-four years old and have been working in customer service since I was sixteen, I know how to work with people, plus? I went to public school, where they are constantly inflicting group projects on students (his rationale was that my fellow students may not have had the experience - what the hell kinds of schools did they go to?) - had found me a partner. (I would like to apologize for the previous sentence. I hope no one got lost.)
WOE AND DESPAIR. So much for all that brainstorming I did on my own, right? Because you know that no kid going to a community college in Maine is going to care about the Tigers.
So I meet my new partner, Jennifer, who must be new to the class because she wasn't even sure what the project was. I summed it up as above (ie, anything), and we got to trying to find interests in common.
Here I was guilty of sexism. I assumed that Jennifer, in her capacity as female, would not be interested in a sports project. Even though I myself display distinct female characteristics. Go figure. So I offhandedly mentioned sports, and she perked up. She loves sports. Everything. Except not so much baseball. Still! Close enough. I floated an idea I'd had earlier about a comparison of baseball, the only remaining major sport in the US without a salary cap, to a sport with a salary cap. (Just one sport - doing all of them would be way too wide a scope with too many other differences to address. I was thinking football, because it's the only other sport I know anything about and having to learn all about basketball or whatever would have been a hassle.) I got this idea from Lee Goldberg, a local sports anchor, mentioning in a presentation to my sports management class last semester that baseball players are far and away the snottiest major sports figures to deal with.
She was interested. Good. Maybe this would work. Then the subject turned to the Tigers notes I still had in my hand.
YOU GUYS SHE LIVED IN DETROIT AND SHE LOVES THE TIGERS.
So I explained my Tigers idea and she thought it was great! We were both thrilled that we'd ended up paired with just the right partner. No compromising and picking a subject that neither of us really cares about. Both of us being keenly interested is going to make a huge difference. Plus, since I'd been proceeding on the assumption that I'd be working alone, we didn't have to spend a bunch of time picking a topic since I already had one outlined. Since we'd just partnered up, we could have been quite behind everyone else, but instead we came out ahead, since we don't have to officially claim our topics until Thursday. (Our teacher is similarly pleased, since I'd made my aversion to group work so clear. He managed, by sheer dumb luck, to find a partner I am happy with. *g*)
AND THUS I WIN.
Now if I can just convince her to put the presentation together while I write the paper . . . we both have to present it, but I'm much better at writing than making visuals.
